The Gray Man – Film Review

Posted on July 23, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Writers: Joe Russo, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Anda de Armas, Jessica Henwick, and Billy Bob Thornton

Rating: ★★★

Netflix’s new spy thriller The Gray Man is based on the book of the same name by Mark Greaney. It’s been over ten years since a film adaptation was first announced, with Brad Pitt in the title role, and in the years since there’s been a couple of attempts to get an adaptation of the ground, but it didn’t get anywhere. The actual film was directed by the Russo brothers, who previously directed Avengers Infinity War and Endgame.

Ryan Gosling stars a Sierra Six, a CIA assassin who lives his life in the shadows. After a hit goes wrong, since Six tries to avoid collateral damage, Six learns that his target was actually a former agent, Sierra Four. In his dying moments Four gives Six a drive that contains proof of corruption within the CIA, specifically of Denny Carmichael. Six investigates further, uncovering the truth, but Carmichael sends an assassin after him, Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) and Six doesn’t know who he can trust.

The Gray Man has a really great cast with Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans going up against each other. Chris Evans makes a good villain, torturing to get what he wants. Ryan Gosling is brilliant, as always, instantly grabbing you into the world of the film. The story is a little more formulaic and you’ll see plenty of moments coming before they do. There’s also, sadly, a few stupid moments where things happen in order to continue the plot. A villain has the opportunity to kill Gosling, but just doesn’t. Things like that are really annoying in spy thrillers, but not the end of the world.  

The action in the film is mostly great, from close-up combat, shoot outs, and some great big fights. It’s all really well choreographed and looks intense. Letting it down is a lot of flashy and sometimes awkward camera work, with shots flying all over the place. At points it seems to be more focused on showing off the budget, as if the cast list doesn’t do that already, instead of making the action exciting. When it is more grounded and focused is when it really works.

For the most part the film is played really seriously, even though it’s plot is completely over the top and there are some insane set pieces. Throughout there is still some moments of comedy, especially from Chris Evans who seems to be having a great time. It injects some much-needed lightness to the film, and it’s a shame it doesn’t lean into the comedy more. At one point Evans even calls Gosling a ‘Ken doll’, which apparently is just a coincidence as the film was made before Gosling was cast in the upcoming Barbie film, but it’s still funnier because of the accidental reference.

The Gray Man is pretty good, despite it’s length and cliched story. It does what it sets out to do, and is entertaining while doing so. It’s not the most exciting spy film, but it’s not the worst thing to watch on Netflix. It’s highly polished and if there are further adaptations of the long running book series, hopefully it can build upon the foundations in this film.  

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master – Film Review

Posted on July 22, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter


Director: Renny Harlin


Writers: Brain Helgeland, Ken and Jim Wheats


Starring: Lisa Wilcox, Danny Hassel, Tuesday Knight, Ken Sagoes, Rodney Eastman, and Robert
Englund

Rating: ★★½


A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master was released in August 1987, a little over a year since the third film was released. While The Dream Master received the biggest box office of the entire franchise (until the crossover Freddy vs. Jason), the follow up is a bit of a mess. It’s not scary in the slightest, and really suffers from a weak script that doesn’t do anything new or exciting with the franchise.


Freddy’s (Robert Englund) back after being laid to rest at the end of Dream Warriors. He comes back in a dream where a dog pees literal fire over where Freddy was buried which cracks open the Earth and his bones reassemble. That’s it. It’s a stupid moment that’s not as funny as it should be. The portrayal of Freddy is really weak throughout The Dream Master. He just turns up and kills people, with a higher body count than previous entries. For most of the deaths he gives a one-liner, but none of them are funny are memorable. It’s just trying to recapture the magic of Dream Warriors, with very limited effect.


The film really suffered from the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike, which meant that director Harlin ended up making a film with very little planning for the plot and a lot of improvisation. It really shows in the final product, with some incredibly bad and unnatural dialogue. There are so many clunky moments that just don’t work. Essentially the plot show Kristen’s powers being transferred to Alice and Krueger killing the others that Alice brings into her dreams. The actual ‘Dream Master’ that the title refers to is a rhyme, which is forgotten for most of the film, until it’s really important at the end.


While the script is poor and is essentially just death after death with only the main character, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) getting any character development, that’s not the main reason to watch a slasher film. It’s all about the kills, and there are a couple of really great ones here. Kincaid’s (Ken Sagoes) death, one of the survivors from the previous film, comes really early on and is a bit of a shock. Debbie Stevens (Brooke Theiss) is turned into a cockroach, which is probably the most memorable death in the film.


Arguably the best thing about this film is Renny Harlin’s direction. It’s incredibly inspired. There’s a sequence where Kristen (played this time around by Tuesday Knight, since Patricia Arquette declined returning to focus on more dramatic roles) is drugged by her mother with sleeping tablets. The camera spins all over and around the room, following the Kristen constantly, in one of the most mesmerising, but also stomach-churning shots. It’s an amazing part of the film. The film really leans into the dreamworld as well, with a really well-made time-loop that feels like a real dream, a scene where the characters fall asleep in class. The film does a really good job of blending the dreams with the real world.


The effects are also spectacular, with some incredible prosthetics and transformations. The death of Krueger in this one, looks incredible. It may look a little dated at points, but overall, the effects look better than a fair few modern films.

It is definitely the weakest entry in the series up to that point, but it’s still entertaining. The shallow plot can be overlooked because everything else is so well crafted. The Dream Master is still a solid entry to the series, even though it’s very messy.


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Boy – Film Review

Posted on July 21, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Taika Waititi

Writer: Taika Waititi

Starring: James Rolleston, Te Aho Eketone-Whitu, and Taika Waititi

Rating: ★★★½

Taika Waititi’s second film, Boy, was released in 2010, but work began on the script years before even his first film was released, 2007’s Eagle vs Shark. Boy is a darkish comedy about a young boy, Alamein who is played by James Rolleston, coming to terms with the fact that his father isn’t as cool and adventurous as he imagined him to be.

Boy, whose real name is Alamein (named after his father), spends most of the film simply being called boy by his friends and family, even though he starts to resent the nickname. He’s left in charge of his grandmother’s household when she travels to Wellington for a funeral. While she’s away boy’s father, played by Taika Waititi, reappears after spending time in prison. As soon as he arrives, boy is overjoyed hoping to make his dream version a reality.

The film starts with Boy introducing himself at school with a presentation. He talks about his life, family, his obsession with Michael Jackson, and making out that his father is basically superhuman. He tells tall tales about the amazing feats that his father has done, and straight away someone calls him a liar as his father is in prison. When Alamein actually turns up, you know instantly know that boy’s fantasy is going to be shattered, especially when he has to introduce himself to his own father.

Alamein is not a good father in any stretch of the imagination. He makes it clear that he doesn’t really want to be there, and the only reason he’s come back home is to find the money he buried before prison. He even asks Boy to not call him ‘dad’ at one point, because it sounds weird. He’s not mature enough to be a dad and doesn’t hide away from the fact that he plans on leaving again as soon as he finds the money. It’s really sad to watch. 

Despite the subject matter, right from the start Waititi’s humour is there, with the quirky fantasy sequences about boy’s father as well as his younger brother, Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu), who believes he has superpowers. The film becomes more grounded as it goes on and the comedy starts to be replaced with a more emotional story about someone who doesn’t live up to expectations.

One of the darker elements of the film, that works really well, is that Rocky thinks he killed his mum, as she died in childbirth. There’s a sense of guilt that he has and it’s heartbreaking that anyone would actually think that. He even apologises to his father at one point for it. It’s never played off as a joke, it’s just the way that Rocky interprets the world around him and it’s quite sad.

Boy hits hard when it needs to, and somehow manages to keep the tone quite light throughout. It’s a poignant film about growing up and finding out that your parents are human, something that almost everyone can relate to. It’s also interesting watching Waititi’s style grow in this film, knowing where his career has gone since.

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A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors – Film Review

Posted on July 20, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Chuck Russell

Writers: Wes Craven, Bruce Wagner, Frank Darabont, and Chuck Russell

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, Patricia Arquette, Laurence Fishburne, Priscilla Pointer, Craig Wasson, John Saxon, Dick Cavett, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Robert Englund

Rating: ★★★★ 

For the third entry to the Nightmare on Elm Street series, this time sub-titled Dream Warriors, Wes Craven returned to co-write the script. His idea was to finish the series off, as he’d never intended there to be sequels in the first place. We know now that the series was far from over, with the box office success guaranteeing a future for the series. The third entry also sees Heather Langenkamp return as Nancy, the protagonist from the original film.

One year after the events of Freddy’s Revenge Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) is admitted to Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital after her mother thinks she attempts suicide for attention. Kristen was attacked in a dream by Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) and she ends up meeting several patients in the hospital are having similar dreams, and they join together in order to take on Freddy.

The original film is a classic, and while the second one is ambitious, it doesn’t live up to the original. This one is as good as the original, and in some places it’s even better. It’s a natural escalation of the ideas of the original, this time a group fighting Freddy together instead of Nancy by herself. Instead of bringing Freddy into the real world, the heroes take control of the dream, using their own powers to take on the bogeyman.

A noticeable difference the third time around is that Freddy is given a lot more personality from the previous entries. Up to this point he’s simply a sinister character, while in Dream Warriors he’s given more comedic lines, with one-liners when he kills someone. The lines he gives in this one are iconic, and have been repeated and parodied time and time again. When people think of Freddy Krueger it’s normally the way he’s shown in this film that comes to mind. Probably the most iconic line ‘welcome to prime time, bitch’, when Freddy morphs out a TV and kills Jennifer (Penelope Sudrow), a wannabe actor. The line was actually adlibbed by Robert Englund, and is one of his only adlibs for the entire franchise. 

Dream Warriors has a fantastic cast, with not only Heather Langenkamp returning from the first film, but also Laurence Fishburne as well as Patricia Arquette in her first ever role. The cast are fantastic, making something that on the surface is pretty silly, seem completely believable and serious. The concept is a group of people joining together in dreams, essentially with super powers, and the film takes that concept very seriously, even if Freddy is a little more silly and over the top this time around.

Since the film had an even bigger budget than previous entries, there are a lot more effects. Looking back at them, they have aged poorly especially considering how well the original’s effect hold up. There’s a fight with Krueger’s skeleton that looks corny now but was probably really impressive at the time. Saying that, Phillip (Bradley Gregg) having the tendons ripped out of his arms and legs and being used like a marionette, is still a stand-out moment, that’s stomach churning and still looks great.

Dream Warriors takes the series in a new direction, with fresh ideas and a stellar cast. The only real downside is that the music is a little disappointing, especially considering it’s scored by Angelo Badalamenti, but it’s still decent and a lot better than the second film’s score. Despite that it’s one of the franchise’s highest points and really stands the test of time. It also gives Freddy a good ending, even if it’s ignored in future instalments. 

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Grave of the Fireflies – Film Review

Posted on July 19, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Isao Takahata

Writer: Isao Takahata

Starring: J. Robert Spencer, Corinne Orr, Veronica Taylor, Amy Jones, Shannon Conley, Dan Green, Crispin Freeman

Rating: ★★★★

Studio Ghibli’s 1988 classic Grave of the Fireflies is based on Akiyuki Nosaka’s 1967 semi-autobiographical short story of the same name. It’s a dark war tragedy set in the final year of the Second World War and follows two siblings who have lost almost everything while they try to survive. Originally Grave of the Fireflies was released as a double-bill with Ghibili’s much more children friendly My Neighbour Totoro. It’s a pairing that doesn’t make much sense until you finish Grave of the Fireflies and feel the need something much more uplifting.

Grave of the Fireflies starts with the main character, Seita, dying of starvation in a train station. His spirit then rejoins his younger sister, Setsuko, and they go off into the afterlife together. The rest of the film is then a flashback to the final part of the war as the two siblings lose their mother in the firebombing of Kobe. It’s a dark opening, that shows the horrors of war on the civilians still at home. Without their home or mother, and their father fighting in the war, the pair move in with their aunt. At first you naturally assume she’s going to be caring and look after them, but instead she’s horrible towards them. Taking everything they own, denying them food, and even pressuring Seita to sell his mother’s kimonos in order to buy more rice.

All the way through the film you know it all ends in tragedy, you just don’t know how. It is harrowing to watch as Setsuko becomes more frail and weak, and Seita isn’t able to find enough food to feed her. They move out of the aunt’s house, after feeling very unwanted with her constant insults and criticising everything they do. Instead they move into a bomb shelter, where they make a home for themselves. Every time things start to look up for the siblings, the weight of the world comes crashing down on them again. It’s a depressing tale, that doesn’t hold back, and one that is at points hard to watch. It’s made even more impactful by the animation, that is gritty and realistic. 

Writer and director has said many times that the film isn’t an anti-war story, but just about children surviving and connecting after the loss of their parents. It’s hard to not see the anti-war sentiment throughout the story, even if it’s not intentional. The loss of food during rationing, the devastating effects of the firebombs, Seita’s outburst of anguish when Japan eventually surrenders, not because they’ve lost but because he realises his father is dead. There’s no glorification of war of soldiers and it does seem to come from a pacifist’s point of view. It does a great job at showing the resilience of people as Seita and Setsuko still finding moments of joy through their toughest times. They play, explore, and laugh together.

Grave of the Fireflies is a sentimental tragedy that hits like an emotional bomb. It wears you down over its ninety-minute runtime, until you like an emotional wreck. Even through it’s darkest moments the story is never nihilistic, and with its spiritual opening there’s a reminder all the way through that there is some kind of happy ending for the pair. 

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